Update: Follow-up On Local News

Update

Tom Gear hopes the benches and the fountain he wants to have placed between Hampton's city hall and police headquarters will give people a quiet spot where they can relax.

And he hopes that while they're enjoying themselves, they'll take a minute to look at the busts of three slain police officers in the center of the park, and remember.

Gear, a Hampton businessman, plans to kick off a fund-raising campaign Nov. 9 to transform the vacant spot of land into a memorial for city police officers killed in the line of duty. He estimates the project will cost $100,000 to $125,000.

The park will honor slain officers Kenny Wallace, who died earlier this year; Mark DeCuypere, who was shot in 1975 while responding to a domestic disturbance; and Ralph Ghivizzani, a Phoebus police officer killed in 1943.

One local organization has already made a ``sizable'' contribution but has asked to remain anonymous, he said.

When Wallace died, Gear said, he started thinking about local policemen who had been killed in the line of duty.

``Kenny was my friend, and his father Tommy was my mailman for many years,'' Gear said. ``I started asking when the last police officer had been killed in Hampton, and I couldn't remember.

``I just want to be able to do away with the question. We don't want the people of Hampton to forget.''

ABANDONED BABY TO GET HOME SOON

Efforts to track down the parents of Jonathan, the baby abandoned on the doorsteps of Sentara Hampton General Hospital in July, have been futile.

But the 3-month-old infant should be able to settle into a permanent home soon, when the Social Services Department completes a legal process that will enable a judge to terminate the rights of the natural parents, said Lydia Arrington, a senior social work supervisor.

While it is tough to predict when that process will be finished, Arrington said, it's a legal hurdle that must be cleared before the baby can be placed in a permanent home.

Once the baby is with the adoptive parents, social workers must make at least three visits to the new home, Arrington said. The entire process can take at least a year, she said.

Meanwhile, Jonathan is being taken care of at a foster home on the Peninsula, Arrington said.

``He's still a healthy baby,'' she said. ``He's doing well developmentally . . . . We should have no problem finding adoptive parents.''

THEN AND NOW

25 YEARS AGO The state celebrated its first anniversary of liquor-by-the-drink. For more than 50 years preceding October 17, 1968, it was illegal to consume a mixed drink in public. Despite opponents' predictions that Virginians would be seduced by cocktails, and liquor sales would soar, the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Board reported only a 5 percent to 6 percent increase in overall ABC sales. Though the board had predicted 800 by-the-drink licenses would be issued during the first year, by October 1969, the number was only 376. Since then, the population has increased more than 37 percent, and the state has seen the growth of a thriving tourism industry. Perhaps these are a couple of reasons why the ABC board reports issuing and renewing a total of 3,079 mixed drink licenses for fiscal year 1994.

10 YEARS AGO Fans camped out for a Boy George concert. About 30 fans braved the cold, wind and rain and some spent the night outside Hampton Coliseum awaiting ticket sales for the band, Culture Club. The gender-bending lead singer's unique style, dress and vocals made him an '80s phenomenon. George's star hasn't shone as brightly since then, but the Boy was a Grammy nominee this year as best male pop vocalist for the title song from the movie, "The Crying Game," which won the 1993 Academy Award for best screenplay. Also, a paternity suit filed against Boy George in London was thrown out recently for insufficient evidence.

FIVE YEARS AGO The aircraft carrier Coral Sea, built by Newport News Shipbuilding and launched in Newport News in April 1946, finished its last mission in October of 1989. The Navy could not afford to keep it after the new carrier Abraham Lincoln went into service. A Puerto Rico-based group seeking to refurbish the Coral Sea as a tourist attraction could not raise enough funds, which left the Navy to seek bids on a scrap contract. The contract was bought a year ago by Seawitch Salvage in Baltimore. The company says it will take roughly two years to scrap the 45,000-ton Coral Sea.